Jeff Lawyer is a veteran tax attorney focusing on transactional tax planning since 1986. Prior to attending law school, Jeff spent six years as a certified public accountant with a Big 4 accounting firm, which gives him a strong financial and accounting background to bring to bear on solving clients’ tax planning and structuring problems.
Jeff regularly works with Womble Bond Dickinson’s clients and transactional lawyers in planning and structuring mergers and acquisitions in the most tax efficient manner, including taxable asset and equity acquisitions, tax free mergers and reorganizations, and acquisitions with tax deferred equity rollovers.
Jeff regularly counsels clients on the use of pass-through entities in joint ventures and investment transactions, including structuring distribution and allocation provisions of partnership and limited liability company agreements for real estate and private equity transactions. Jeff has extensive experience in planning and structuring tax deferred like-kind exchange transactions involving real estate.
A significant portion of Jeff’s practice relates to counseling tax-exempt organizations. He has represented hospitals, exempt affiliates of hospitals, retirement communities, private foundations, research organizations, and colleges and universities in filing exemption applications and rulings, mergers and acquisitions, and reorganizations. Jeff regularly counsels tax-exempt organizations on relationships with for-profit parties, including joint ventures between exempt organizations and for-profit parties.
Jeff has helped clients to successfully resolve federal tax audits and controversies in the administrative appeals process and in the US Tax Court.
Professional Activities
North Carolina Bar Association, Past Chairman, Tax Section
Honors and Awards
- Chambers USA Ranked Lawyer, Tax, North Carolina, 2020 – Present
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (BL Rankings) in the fields of Health Care Law, Tax Law, Trusts and Estates, 2003 – Present
- Super Lawyers Honoree, Tax, Business/Corporate, North Carolina Super Lawyers magazine (Thomson Reuters), 2007 – 2017
- Recognized in Business North Carolina magazine’s Legal Elite
Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- Regularly works with Womble Bond Dickinson corporate, real estate, and finance attorneys to assist with tax structuring and tax planning issues in complex commercial transactions.
- Represented numerous tax-exempt hospitals in tax planning and compliance relating to forming whole-hospital joint ventures with a large for-profit hospital entity while preserving their tax-exempt status.
- Represented tax-exempt retirement communities in restructuring transactions to expand their scope of services and into home care, low-income housing, and offering their expertise to other retirement communities.
- Assisted a tax-exempt research organization in structuring a significant transaction involving the license of technology to a for-profit company in a tax efficient manner.
- Advised clients regarding tax planning for ownership and use of business aircraft.
